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The ultimate review of the Copa America 2007

So the 42nd edition of the Copa America has been consigned to the history books after Brazil stunned Argentina 3-0 in a surprise score line in the final on Sunday. With 86 goals scored in a mere 26 games the goals per game average of 3.3 goals per game bore testimony to the large amount of goals scored. There were some classic matches as well as one or two disappointing ones. We’ll review the final as well as give our final verdict on all the teams and their performances.

In the end the final turned up a bit of a shock, in fact some bookies were offering odds of 1-3 on Argentina to win the final before the kick-off. Having won all of their games at a canter, with the exception of their final group game against Paraguay with qualification already in the bag when they played a weakened team, Argentina were hot favourites to secure their record breaking 15th Copa America title. Brazil, on the other hand, had struggled to find their best form although the performances had improved as the tournament wore on.

However, an early goal from Julio Baptista tucking away an opener after only 5 minutes, showing the sort of sharp finishing largely absent during his time at the Emirates this season, imbued Brazil with a fresh sense of confidence and they set about frustrating Argentina and wrapping up a 3-0 win. Argentina were undoubtedly handicapped after loosing Hernan Crespo after the group stages but Brazil equally were without Gilberto Silva their captain. Brazil looked better for mirroring their opponents formation, 4-3-1-2 allowing Hertha Berlin midfielder Mineiro to deal with Riquelme after identifying the man responsidle for much of Argentina’s success as the danger man.

It was a good tournament for:

- Venezuela: the hosts avoided the embarrassment of being the first host nation ever not to make it through to the knock out stages and won a game against Peru in the process and doubling their number of wins they had ever recorded in the tournament. But quite aside from the sporting success Venezuela enjoyed, giving Uruguay a run for their money in the quarter finals before succumbing 4-1, the infrastructure the tournament left behind should provide a real boost to the country not only in the football sphere but in overall infrastructure as well.

- decent refereeing: sure there were some dubious decisions such as allowing the obvious encroachment by Doni the Brazil keeper during the semi-final penalty shoot-out against Uruguay particularly on the decisive penalty to persist, but on the whole most decisions were sound and taken with a minimum of fuss. The lack of blatant cheating and diving also made the lives of the referees easier and it was good to see that the players by and large got on with the games and didn’t contest the decisions of the referees. Hopefully this may start a trend across the rest of the world although this may be a tad optimistic on my part!

- goals: the highest average the tournament has ever recorded, the number of goals scored this year eclipsed the record amount scored 3 years ago in 2004. In among the mass of goals were 22 in the 4 matches in the quarter finals, only 6 less than Manchester City managed in the whole of their season! There were also some fabulous efforts of particular note the opening goal of the tournament when Villalta left fly for Peru to open the scoring against Uruguay. Uruguay also managed some excellent goals themselves of particular note were 2 against the hosts in the quarter finals from Pablo Garcia a left footed drive from 35 yards out and Diego Forlan placing a crisp finish beyond the keeper after a half cleared corner fell to him on the edge of the area. Leonel Messi also got in the act with a wonderful solo effort to get Argentina off the mark against Mexico in the semi finals but the overall quality of the goals was very high.

It was a bad tournament for:

competition: although 22 goals were scored it is difficult to recall a less balanced and more one-sided set of quarter finals played in any major club or international cup tournament. Although 22 goals were scored in those games 90% of them were scored by the team that won the game. Although Brazil were made to work for their qualification in the end that was more because of their own shortcomings than any good play on behalf of their opponents. Group C had already been decided by the final night and neither the USA nor Colombia had any realistic hope of qualifying as the best placed 3rd placed team. In Group B Chile and Mexico both knew that a draw would be enough to see them through and that was duly the outcome. Also why did two of the quarter finals involve teams that had already played each other in the group stage? This format meant that Venezuela and Uruguay played each other twice within the space of four days. Surely not the idea of tournament football? This format wasn’t adopted in the previous competition � was it really engineered so that Venezuela, the hosts, the most likely team to finish in 3rd place in Group A avoided the winners of Group B?

going out with your team-mates: after several key Chilean players, including Jorge Valdivia, Rodrigo Tello and Jorge Vargas, broke a curfew in between their final group game against Mexico and their return match against Brazil in the quarter finals they were banned by the Chilean Federation for 20 matches. Chile after their defiant performance against Brazil in the group stage when the 3-0 score-line flattered the Brazilians were tepid and weak by comparison and ended up getting hammered 6-1!

playing great football: the moral high ground is a depressing place in football; Argentina clearly played the best football in the tournament turning in some wonderful performances along the way. However, in the final it was the more charismatic Brazil side coached by former defensive midfielder Dunga that triumphed after stuttering their way into the final. Robinho’s claim after the final that the result and the victory in this Copa America was vindication of their playing style hardly holds up as for large parts of the final they were out played by Argentina.

That said the football was good at times, despite the one sided and somewhat predictable make-up of the semi finalists and there were several exciting games including the Brazil-Uruguay semi final amongst others. Whether the success of the tournament will persuade Sky to invest more heavily in broadcasting games from the South American continent is open to debate. Sky’s relationship with the marketing partner of CONMEBOL, who organised the Copa Amercia, Traffic has been recently expanded to include highlights of the Brazilian league. Traffic also have the international rights to the Copa Libertadores so who knows - maybe in the future the South American equivalent of the UEFA Champions League will be coming to a screen near you.

Best European based player:

Leonel Messi at times was wonderful playing some beautiful incisive football and scoring two goals on the way and helping set up several more. In fact if his partnership with Carlos Tevez, which flopped in the final, had been worked on since the beginning of the tournament the two could have struck up an even better understanding.

Nery Castillo of Olympiakos also deserves special mention for his role in Mexico’s excellent tournament including beating Brazil in their opening game. His 4 goals for Mexico went along way to helping Mexico finish 3rd and his link up play between midfield and attack was at times outstanding. Mexico will, no doubt, be delighted they managed to persuade him to play for the country of his birth.

But the player of the tournament and also the winner of the Golden Boot is Robinho. Potentially discarded by his club Real Madrid after failing to find the same form that he showed at Santos and unable to settle into his best position he literally dragged Brazil into the knock out stages scoring all their goals before the quarter final stages. His contribution to the attack was so immense that without his goals when Brazil simply never looked like scoring, especially in the group stages, they would never have been in a position to get to the final. Whether he has done enough to keep his place in the Brazil squad when Kaka and Ronaldinho are available still remains to be seen but this tournament served as a timely reminder to Bernd Schuster, new coach at Real Madrid and to the rest of the footballing world in general, that Robinho is a talent that should not be written off.

Best Central/South American player:

Humberto Suazo, who has recently transferred to Mexican football after a net busting spell in his native Chile with 70 goals coming in 75 games for Colo Colo, managed another 3 goals in the Copa including being the only Chilean to show any sort of stomach for the fight against Brazil in the quarter finals contributing a sublime lob over Doni that counted for little but has hopefully been duly noted by the scouts.

Salvador Cabanas was unlucky not to get more playing time for Paraguay as the coach persisted with the pairing of Cardozo and Santa Cruz and his 3 goals came in little less than 45 combined minutes on the pitch. Currently plying his trade in Mexico for Club America the stocky striker could yet make a move to Europe.

And I know the final nomination in this section is a cheat as he is still under contract to a European based club and will most likely end up still in Europe but Juan Roman Riquelme, still on loan at Boca, had a brilliant tournament for Argentina pulling strings from the hole behind two strikers. He also chipped in with 5 goals including breaking the deadlock against Peru in the quarter final. Which ever club he moves to in Europe as Villarreal will no doubt be eager to cash in on a player they don’t want him anymore, will have a jewel under contract. Such a pity that he couldn’t add the Copa America of 2007 to the Copa Libertadores he almost single handedly won for Boca Juniors.

**Check out the team-by-team review to get all the information on each team's performance at the Copa America**

Posted by Walter Townsend on Tuesday, 17th July 2007

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